ALL WHRO SITES Photo courtesy of Donna Braxton. David Braxton, 45, has spent nearly half his life behind bars in Virginia prisons. The Covid-19 pandemic has added another threat to the state's overcrowded prison system, with more than 5,000 prisoners testing positive for the virus. Braxton, at Augusta Correctional Center, says the crisis has put inmates on edge. In Virginia Prisons, Fear Spreads With Virus Details As told by Louis, Hansen, VCIJ executive director David Braxton was a small-time drug dealer in the late 1990s, shuttling cocaine and marijuana between New York City and Virginia. One transaction turned violent. Braxton and his cousin were charged with beating to death another dealer in a field in Fauquier County. A jury convicted Braxton of the murder in 1998 and sentenced him to life in prison.